Will Bale succumb to the media hype?

Talking about who will replace Daffy has lead the 'medja' to speculate about Bale's role.

But what is Bale? Is he a winger? Is he an old 'inside forward'? Is he a striker?

I like the fact that Bale has the confidence to come inside and let off a few shots, and his goals have certainly not done us any harm over the past couple of seasons. I wish Lemmon had a similarly lethal right foot and also chipped in with more goals.

But at what point does more become less? I pointed out in previous seasons how many shots he then had. That trend seems to be as prevalent this season.

Is that urge to score then detracting from his wing play?

This season, even Daffy, who isn't renowned for his unselfish play, has as many assists.

I pointed out on another thread, that this may not be entirely Bale's fault, as he does put in a few decent crosses that, if not converted, do not appear in any stats I've seen. So it may the fault of Dempsey/Ade/Daffy/Lemmon/Glyphy etc for not getting on the end.

The question that I haven't answered myself is, would I prefer Bale acting more as a provider rather than going for goal himself? He terrorises defences when in full flow, and presumably scares them even more because they now know he can also put the ball away. Would/could we have scored more though, if he had more thought to play the pass rather than take the shot?

What is the balance? Would any of you have him play any differently? More shots? More assists?

Personally John,i prefer us to play with the 2 wide men.But only if they have pace and the ability to go get past defenders with confidence which currently Bale and Lennon can do.I'm hoping that Holtby might be encouraged to cover the left hand side(if playing) when Bale goe's on one of his runs which still gives alternatives on both sides,should he get blocked off by 2 or 3 defenders as he does seem to drag half of the opposition with him.As you've already mentioned,Lennon doesn't seem to possess a pair of shooting boots and unless he finds apair in the near future should stay wide as normal and continue as he is with his crossing into the box for others to get on the end of.Sadly none of our midfield seem able to strike the ball as crisp as the lkes of Gerrard and Lampard who seem to get on the score sheet quite often(especially Lamps).I was hoping that Dembele was going to be an improvement on Modric's tally but to my knowledge his debut goal is the only one.Yes we get the odd one here and there from the others,but aren't the midfield players the one's with all the skill and should all be able to find the back of the net like Mata of Chelsea but sadly this is not the case at the LANE.Our goal tally looks pretty poor to the 3 teams above us and even the Arse and so shooting practice should definately be on our agenda as i can't remember the last time we scored 3 goals or more.So it's shooting pactice or a very good striker for me.

I also tend to prefer Bale wide. I have liked wing play since the formation used to be 2-3-5. To me it gives the opposition more of a problem as it allows the 10 player space. BUT, I still want to see Bale (and Lemmon) rack up >10 goals each a season!

I see Joe has posted about Glyphi and giving him a go - and the 'medja' is now talking of Bale playing the Messi role. Personally, I think we leaped into the market last summer without a clear idea of what we wanted or needed. So now we have Holtby/Glyphy/Dempsey at least vying for the 10'ish role, with maybe also Ade and Bale in the frame.I suppose part of the problem is temporarily gone given Daffy's forced absence, but I wonder whether AVB will toy with the idea of playing Bale central (behind Ade) with Holtby/Dempsey/Glyphy then left.